That Evening Sun is a photo-journal of life, love and interminable lasting on LA’s Skid Row
by Suitcase Joe

I’ve been seeing Michelle around downtown quite a bit lately. Sometimes she remembers me and other times I have to introduce myself all over again, even after running into her the day before. Regardless if she remembers me or not, she is always soft spoken and sweet. I didn’t ask her how she got the black eye or cut on her face, but she was still kind enough to let me take some photos. [Read more…]

That Evening Sun is a photo-journal of life, love and interminable lasting on LA’s Skid Row
by Suitcase Joe

Doreen was using the reflection of a van window to brush her hair and ready herself for me to take a couple photos when I took this shot. Turns out it was the best one. I hadn’t seen Doreen in over a year when I came across her on Glady’s street, close to where she used to live and work out of her tent. She tells me she wasn’t getting along with her neighbors so it was time to move away from that street. Now she lives under a bridge beneath the 110 highway where it’s a little more peaceful. There are all kinds of characters and personalities among the street residents I’ve met in Skid Row, but Doreen is one of the more vibrant ones I’ve come across, yet. I’m happy to see she is still around. [Read more…]

That Evening Sun is a photo-journal of life, love and interminable lasting on LA’s Skid Row
by Suitcase Joe

Alfred, known on the streets as Evil, has been a long time affiliate of the Diamond Street Gang, but is no longer an active member. He once made large amounts of money, running drugs and guns for his gang, but eventually that all caught up to him. Things continued to get worse and he lost his wife in a divorce and the custody of his son. He tells me: “I hit a rough patch and lost my kids. I feel like a burden to everyone. I’m ashamed to be seen by my mother.” The wound on his stomach is from when he shot himself with a .45 last November. That was his first attempt at taking his own life. He tells me he’s made a lot of mistakes and with that has come a heavy price. Alfredo has exhausted the generosity of his friends and family and he has no one left to turn to. For the last two weeks he’s been living out of his car in Skid Row where he prefers to be out of sight from everyone. This past Saturday he tried to take his own life again. He got hold of a new gun, sat in his car, turned up the music and put the gun to his head. Luckily a man nearby happened to see this and quickly pounced upon him, wrestling Alfred’s gun out of his hands. The gun went off in the incident, but fortunately no one was shot. Whoever the man was talked to Alfred and calmed him down. He bought him food and alcohol and gave him a few dollars for his drugs (crack). The man told Alfred, he knows he can’t control him doing any of that, but please don’t do this, (referring to his gun), which he said he was going to give him back, but asked him please not to take his life. Alfred didn’t want the gun back. He told the man to keep it. But he told me this of his attempted suicides: “I lived, but I’m not happy to be alive.” [Read more…]

That Evening Sun is a photo-journal of life, love and interminable lasting on LA’s Skid Row
by Suitcase Joe

Alan was formerly addicted to crack cocaine. He tells me he no longer smokes crack, but he has a heavy drinking problem, and he doesn’t see that changing anytime soon. [Read more…]

That Evening Sun is a photo-journal of life, love and interminable lasting on LA’s Skid Row
by Suitcase Joe

I usually see Jerry a couple times a week hanging around the corner of 6th and Los Angeles. Last time I spoke with him he was having some trouble with his lungs. Recently he told me he now visits a hospital twice a week where they hook him up to a respiratory machine to help with his breathing. They’re also giving him steroids in the form of an inhaler. Like always, Jerry was in high spirits. For those unfamiliar with Jerry, his deformity comes from being shot in the face with a shotgun at point blank range. Jerry is lucky to have lived through the incident. [Read more…]

That Evening Sun is a photo-journal of life, love and interminable lasting on LA’s Skid Row
by Suitcase Joe

So many dogs in Skid Row. This girl was just checking me out. She tried to hide when I crouched down to pet her. [Read more…]

That Evening Sun is a photo-journal of life, love and interminable lasting on LA’s Skid Row
by Suitcase Joe

The woman on the left brought news that a man around the corner known as New York had just passed away in his tent. That’s how word travels in Skid Row. Fortunately it wasn’t anyone that Tiffany knew. Tiffany (photo right) is a heroin addict. While I was speaking with her, I noticed blood on her shirt and a bloody cloth wrapped around her arm that served as a crude bandage. She tells me, two years ago a couple of abscess’ formed on her arm caused by shooting up and they quickly became infected. The infection continued to grow and spread throughout her entire arm. From my observation her arm cannot be far off from needing to be amputated. However, the state of her arm does not keep her from continuing to use. Addiction is more powerful than some people understand. It’s not as easy as just getting clean and starting over. It’s something you will always have to deal with once it rears its ugly head into your life. [Read more…]

That Evening Sun is a photo-journal of life, love and interminable lasting on LA’s Skid Row
by Suitcase Joe

Her name is Julie Pacheco. She doesn’t speak much English and regardless of the language barrier, I’m told she doesn’t speak much at all. She’s skittish and hides her eyes beneath her black beanie, but she seems very aware of her surroundings. Her body is covered in little scabs and scratches where she picks at herself and she moves with a nervous energy. Julie lives with a man who looks out for her and he is very fond of Julie. He tells me she was a sex slave in Mexico for 10 years, where she was kept in a cage, abused and mistreated. The man has also lived through his own personal trauma and it was evident to me that they have a connection founded in what they’ve been through. He tells me, he’d like to marry her someday, but she doesn’t have any papers. Regardless he is protective over her and takes care of her just the same. I’ll be following up with Julie in the near future after I bring an interpreter with me to help me translate our conversation. I’d like to learn more about her backstory and share it with you all. [Read more…]

That Evening Sun is a photo-journal of life, love and interminable lasting on LA’s Skid Row
by Suitcase Joe

Theresa shooting up crystal methamphetamine on a public sidewalk near the outskirts of Skid Row. From my perspective the amount of hard drug users has only gotten worse over the last couple of years. The drug epidemic is real. [Read more…]

That Evening Sun is a photo-journal of life, love and interminable lasting on LA’s Skid Row
by Suitcase Joe

While visiting Crushow, I was lucky to catch this moment of his daughter coming to see him. It was a moving day for him. Every two weeks the residents have to move their tents and belongings to a different location while the city comes and cleans the streets and sidewalks. Anything that is not removed is thrown away. Sometimes people lose invaluable possessions that cannot be replaced. But Crushow says the upside of the street cleaning is people don’t accumulate too much stuff, which in itself can drag you down. [Read more…]

That Evening Sun is a photo-journal of life, love and interminable lasting on LA’s Skid Row
by Suitcase Joe

You meet all different types of people on Skid Row. Just because you live on the streets doesn’t mean you don’t care about what you wear. This man has style and he knows it. [Read more…]

That Evening Sun is a photo-journal of life, love and interminable lasting on LA’s Skid Row
by Suitcase Joe

He’s thirty six now and has lived in Skid Row for the past six years. When I first came across him he was lying in the middle of the sidewalk, barley able to move. His friend told me he tried smoking synthetic marijuana, something that’s going around Skid Row. They told me it makes you feel awful and unable to move. When I asked them, then why use it? They said, they didn’t have anything else to do. [Read more…]

That Evening Sun is a photo-journal of life, love and interminable lasting on LA’s Skid Row
by Suitcase Joe

The sun has come back. [Read more…]

That Evening Sun is a photo-journal of life, love and interminable lasting on LA’s Skid Row
by Suitcase Joe

Crushow, washing one of his dogs here, is an artist living in Skid Row who cares deeply about the community. In the short amount of time I hung out with him, residents walking past all came up and said hello. He has a couple of dogs he keeps and a litter of pups that he’s selling. The dogs are very well cared for and even have there own IG page. [Read more…]

That Evening Sun is a photo-journal of life, love and interminable lasting on LA’s Skid Row
by Suitcase Joe

“I was floating off the ground from all the electricity running through me, then it blasted me right out the window, forty feet through the air, all the way to the sidewalk on the other side of the street. When I woke up I smelled something burning. Then I realized it was me. I was on fire!” Cricket recounts his story of how he earned his scars. He tells me he used to be a “fence jumper”, going into old buildings and pulling copper to sell. He went into a master room in an abandoned warehouse and grabbed a big ground wire while holding his wrench. “There was so much electricity in there, that the room was humming. You could just feel it. Next thing I know I’m floating off the ground and seeing neon green. Then my eyes flashed twice and I was out.” After being blasted out the window and catching on fire, he woke up again, long enough to try and put himself out, and then passed back out. Two months later he woke up in a hospital bed. He tells me the entire time he was in a coma he was having one long dream where doctors performed experiments on him, but he was still in Skid Row. Cricket lives in Skid Row currently, but he’s not a fence jumper anymore. Now he sells and trades goods on the streets like bikes and clothes. As he says, far less dangerous pursuits.
[Read more…]

That Evening Sun is a photo-journal of life, love and interminable lasting on LA’s Skid Row
by Suitcase Joe

Piles of discarded needles are a common sight to see when walking around Skid Row. Some areas are worse than others, but nowhere is completely void of used syringes on the ground. [Read more…]

That Evening Sun is a photo-journal of life, love and interminable lasting on LA’s Skid Row
by Suitcase Joe

Pee-wee lives in a tent on Townes and 6th. One of the notoriously tougher parts of Skid Row. He talked to me openly about being a heroin addict while showing me the fresh track marks on his arms. He asked if he could recite me a poem and I was shocked at how good it was. It’s easy to forget how many talented people fall to a life of drugs and lose sight of everything else. Many of them ending up on Skid Row. He told me, “I used to be a student counselor if you can believe it.” We traded information and I asked him to send me the poem he recited. If he follows through I will post it on my feed in the future. I look forward to seeing more of Pee-wee. [Read more…]

That Evening Sun is a photo-journal of life, love and interminable lasting on LA’s Skid Row
by Suitcase Joe

On the left is a man who goes by the name Old School. I’m guessing he acquired his street name because he likes to sing old Motown songs. Old School has been living on the streets for six months. This is his second time becoming homeless. At age sixty two the chances of him getting back on his feet are greatly reduced. He said he has problems with people stealing his belongings, and the thing that gets stolen most often is his phone. He lost contact with his son because of it, and doesn’t know how he’ll get in touch with him again. [Read more…]